The Holyoke Publishing Company was an American magazine and comic-book publisher with offices in Holyoke, and Springfield, Massachusetts, and New York City, Its best-known comics characters were Blue Beetle and the superhero duo Cat-Man (later rendered as Catman, sans hyphen) and Kitten, all inherited from defunct former clients of Holyoke's printing business. Holyoke is sometimes confused with companies owned by Frank Z. Temerson, including Helnit, Et-Es-Go, and Continental; with Worth Carnahan's Bilbara Publishing Company; and with Temerson's art director L. B. Cole's packaging clients Narrative Publishers and Aviation Press. Publication history Holyoke Publishing originated with Sherman Bowles, who had taken over his family's Springfield, Massachusetts newspaper dynasty, consisting of The Republican and other papers. He entered comic-book publishing through his printing division, which took over two existing titles from Frank Z. Temerson's Helnit Publishing Company: the superhero series Cat-Man Comics and the war comics series Captain Aero Comics. This occurred in late 1941, with comics cover-dated January 1942 and February 1942. Temerson's staff, including artist Charles Quinlan, continued to produce both series. Quinlan had previously partnered with publisher Worth Carnahan in the companies Bilbara Publishing and Hit Publishing, leading them to often be erroneously grouped with Holyoke. Holyoke's next acquisition was the superhero series Blue Beetle, taking it over from Victor A. Fox's bankrupt Fox Publications beginning with issue #12 (June 1942). The two titles acquired from Heinit reverted to Temerson's new company Et-Es-Go Magazines (later Continental Magazines) following Holyoke's Cat-Man Comics vol. 3, #7, the overall 17th issue, and Captain Aero Comics vol. 2, #4, the overall 10th issue (both Jan. 1943). Later that year, Fox won Blue Beetle back in a lawsuit; Holyoke's final issue was #30 (Feb. 1944). By 1949, Holyoke Publishing was based in Springfield, Massachusetts and published The Open Road for Boys magazine. Holyoke Publishing leased commercial space at 1475 Broadway in Manhattan in April 1944. Confusion with Temerson titles Because of incomplete documentation of the early days of the American comic book, some sources misstate Holyoke's role. One common resource, for example, erroneously refers to Holyoke "imprints including Et-Es-Go Mags, Continental Magazines, Helnit Publishing Co. and Tem Publishing Co." The book The Comic Book in America erroneously states that Holyoke "entered the comic-book superhero business with Crash Comics (May 1940)....", though Crash Comics Adventures was a Temerson title predating Holyoke. That book also erroneously claims Temerson as the Holyoke founder, writing, "Temerson also changed